Claudio Monteverdi | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/claudio-monteverdi
Latest news and features from theguardian.com, the world's leading liberal voiceen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018Thu, 22 Feb 2018 05:27:55 GMT2018-02-22T05:27:55Zen-gbGuardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. 2018The Guardianhttps://assets.guim.co.uk/images/guardian-logo-rss.c45beb1bafa34b347ac333af2e6fe23f.pnghttps://www.theguardian.com
Debussy abounds, Ulysses returns and Rattle debuts: the best classical music for 2018https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/03/key-classical-music-2018-preview
<p>Monteverdi’s masterwork is given new life, two opera titans take on Verdi, and the London Sinfonietta launches a gender-fluid game show</p><p>With the Linbury Studio likely to be out of commission for another year, the Royal Opera has had to look elsewhere for venues for its smaller-scale shows. So three years after its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jan/14/orfeo-monteverdi-review-roundhouse-royal-opera-house">very successful production of L’Orfeo there</a>, it is back at the Roundhouse with another Monteverdi masterpiece. The Return of Ulysses is directed by John Fulljames, with Roderick Williams as Ulysses, Christine Rice as Penelope and Christian Curnyn conducting the Early Opera Company. <br>• <em>10-19 January, <a href="http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/the-return-of-ulysses-by-john-fulljames">Roundhouse, London</a>.</em></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/03/key-classical-music-2018-preview">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicLondon Symphony OrchestraSimon RattleThe London SinfoniettaClaude DebussyCity of Birmingham Symphony OrchestraWelsh National OperaOpera NorthGiuseppe VerdiClaudio MonteverdiWed, 03 Jan 2018 06:00:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jan/03/key-classical-music-2018-previewPhotograph: Linda Nylind for the GuardianPhotograph: Linda Nylind for the GuardianAndrew Clements2018-01-03T06:00:08ZThe top 10 classical shows of 2017https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/18/the-top-10-classical-shows-of-2017
<p>A magisterial Monteverdi cycle, Oliver Knussen’s adventures in haiku – and a hero’s return for Simon Rattle. Our critic picks his highlights</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/18/the-top-10-classical-shows-of-2017">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicOperaCultureMusicMark ElderHallé OrchestraProms 2017Welsh National OperaScottish OperaClaude DebussySimon RattleLondon Symphony OrchestraBernard HaitinkClaudio MonteverdiJohn Eliot GardinerMon, 18 Dec 2017 06:00:51 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/18/the-top-10-classical-shows-of-2017Photograph: Colston Hall/Paul BoxPhotograph: Colston Hall/Paul BoxAndrew Clements2017-12-18T06:00:51ZHouse of Monteverdi review – new music and MP3s take on the madrigal challengehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/03/house-monteverdi-review-shoreditch-church-london-spitalfields-festival-madrigals-new-music
<p><strong>Shoreditch Church, London<br></strong>Work from Monteverdi’s magnificent Eighth Book of Madrigals was interwoven with new pieces inspired by it in this fascinating Spitalfields festival event</p><p>‘This year, we have ambitiously aimed at making each event a festival in its own right,” says <a draggable="true" href="http://kdschmid.de/artistdetail/items/andre-de-ridder.html">André de Ridder</a>, the German born conductor, violinist and champion of new music who is artistic curator of the <a draggable="true" href="https://www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk/season/festival-2017/">Spitalfields music festival</a>’s winter season. True to his word, his programme for the opening concert – entitled <a draggable="true" href="https://www.spitalfieldsmusic.org.uk/events/house-of-monteverdi/">House of Monteverdi</a> and some four and a half hours long – aimed high.</p><p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/claudio-monteverdi">Monteverdi</a>’s Eighth Book of Madrigals, the Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi, was interwoven with a series of new pieces loosely related to it, or reflecting on it, many of them world premieres. De Ridder’s brief to his composers permitted plenty of leeway. They were asked either to address the Madrigali’s principal themes of love and war, or to take other works by Monteverdi, his contemporaries and successors, as starting points for new compositions. The challenge was daunting. The Eighth Book of Madrigals contains some of the greatest vocal music ever penned, whether for solo voices or ensembles: writing a work that can stand comfortably beside any of its contents is far from easy.<br tabindex="-1"></p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/02/monteverdi-madrigali-vol-3-venezia-cd-review-les-arts-florissants">Monteverdi: Madrigali Vol 3: Venezia CD review – a joyous celebration of the composer's range</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/03/house-monteverdi-review-shoreditch-church-london-spitalfields-festival-madrigals-new-music">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicClaudio MonteverdiMusicCultureChoral musicEarly musicExperimental musicSun, 03 Dec 2017 13:48:48 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/dec/03/house-monteverdi-review-shoreditch-church-london-spitalfields-festival-madrigals-new-musicPhotograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi for the GuardianPhotograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi for the GuardianTim Ashley2017-12-03T13:48:48ZMonteverdi: Selva Morale e Spirituale CD review – piercing, nimble confessionalshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/monteverdi-selva-morale-e-spirituale-cd-review-balthasar-neumann-choir-heras-casado
<p><strong>Balthasar Neumann Choir and Ensemble/Heras-Casado</strong> <br>(Harmonia Mundi)</p><p>The name of this 1640 collection means “moral and spiritual forest” and it is Monteverdi in the most exploratory mood – the culmination of his three decades as maestro di cappella at <a draggable="true" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mark%27s_Basilica">St Mark’s Basilica in Venice</a>, with its sumptuous acoustic and crack instrumental band and 40-piece choir to match. You’ll find everything from grand ensembles to intimate solo confessionals, and this recording is best suited to the latter. That’s because conductor Pablo Heras-Casado has a tendency to over-shape the bigger stuff, to traffic-control the corners and smooth out the ride. With Monteverdi, we need the rough and the spontaneous. But individual musicians and singers of the Balthasar Neumann are wonderful, and they shine in their nimble duos and trios – try the piercingly delivered Salve Regina from sopranos Magdalene Harer and Julia Kirchner.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/monteverdi-selva-morale-e-spirituale-cd-review-balthasar-neumann-choir-heras-casado">Continue reading...</a>Claudio MonteverdiClassical musicCultureMusicThu, 23 Nov 2017 15:40:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/nov/23/monteverdi-selva-morale-e-spirituale-cd-review-balthasar-neumann-choir-heras-casadoPhotograph: Metropolitan OperaPhotograph: Metropolitan OperaKate Molleson2017-11-23T15:40:05ZBrecon Baroque festival review – vibrant Vivaldi and mesmerising Monteverdihttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/29/brecon-baroque-festival-review-vibrant-vivaldi-mesmerising-monteverdi
<p><strong>Brecon cathedral/Theatr Brycheiniog<br></strong>I Fagiolini delivered a gutsy, refined rendering of Monteverdi’s Other Vespers and the Brecon Baroque gave the Four Seasons thrilling new life</p><p>With characteristic ingenuity, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/dec/19/i-fagiolini">I Fagiolini</a> have looked beyond the obvious for their celebration of Monteverdi’s 450th anniversary, and with it their own 30th, to bring to the public ear what they call The Other Vespers, namely not the <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/24/monteverdi-vespers-1610-cd-review-dunedin-consort-linn">Vespers of 1610</a>. A collection evocatively named Selva Morale e Spirituale – A Moral and Spiritual Wood – dating from 1641 is the source of these other vespers. The handful of Fagiolini singers performing them at Brecon Cathedral, under the direction of Robert Hollingworth at the chamber organ, seemed to catapult the past into the present with the immediacy of the experience.</p><p>There was a single singer to each part and much varying of the number and disposition of the eight voices. Highly individual timbres lent a greater clarity to the weaving of the contrapuntal lines, often imitated in close proximity by two violins and by Gawain Glenton’s cornett ornamentation. The I Fagiolini sound, by turns gutsy and refined, and their rendering of Monteverdi’s sinuous chromaticism, in particular, worked well in the cathedral, with the final Salve Regina made memorable by Matthew Long’s tenor. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/29/brecon-baroque-festival-review-vibrant-vivaldi-mesmerising-monteverdi">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicFestivalsMusic festivalsEarly musicCultureMusicClaudio MonteverdiSun, 29 Oct 2017 12:27:46 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/oct/29/brecon-baroque-festival-review-vibrant-vivaldi-mesmerising-monteverdiPhotograph: K.MiuraPhotograph: K.MiuraRian Evans2017-10-29T12:27:46ZThe Guardian view on opera: still powerful, still relevant | Editorialhttps://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/the-guardian-view-on-opera-still-powerful-still-relevant
Opera, an artform that exemplifies Europe’s cultural interconnectedness, should not be written off as simply elitist<p>The <a href="https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/opera" title="">V&amp;A’s new exhibition</a>, the first to be shown in its elegant, recently completed extension by architect Amanda Levete, is devoted to the gloriously extreme world of opera. The show, a collaboration with the Royal Opera House, tells a story that begins with the birth pangs of the artform amid the new sounds of Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppaea in Venice in 1643, continues with the Handel-obsessed London of the early decades of the 18th century, and passes on to the shock of the premiere of The Marriage of Figaro in 1786, with its dangerous rhetoric of social equality. Eventually – via Nabucco in Milan, Tannhaüser in Paris and Salome in Dresden – it lands in Leningrad with Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk.</p><p>The exhibition is a reminder that opera, so&nbsp;often derided as elitist, has played an active role in society and politics throughout its life – sometimes as a direct conductor of political ideas, invariably as a mirror of the power structures that produced it. Though Mozart’s Figaro was a toned-down version of the revolutionary play by Beaumarchais on which it was based (said by Georges Danton to have “killed off the nobility”) it was still a radical artwork, with its clever servants outwitting masters on the public stage. Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth was in the front line of Soviet&nbsp;politics, denounced, in a Pravda editorial of 1936 that almost certainly reflected the personal views of Stalin, as “muddle instead of music” that “tickle[d] the&nbsp;perverted bourgeois taste”.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/the-guardian-view-on-opera-still-powerful-still-relevant">Continue reading...</a>OperaCultureEuropeWorld newsMusicV&AMuseumsArt and designRoyal Opera HouseWolfgang Amadeus MozartClaudio MonteverdiDmitri ShostakovichGiacomo PucciniWed, 27 Sep 2017 18:47:39 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/the-guardian-view-on-opera-still-powerful-still-relevantPhotograph: Matt Dunham/APPhotograph: Matt Dunham/APEditorial2017-09-27T18:47:39ZMonteverdi: Vespers 1610 CD review – fresh and clearhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/24/monteverdi-vespers-1610-cd-review-dunedin-consort-linn
Dunedin Consort/Butt<br />(Linn)<p>Having placed Bach’s <em>St John Passion</em> in its liturgical context for recent performances, John Butt’s excellent <a href="https://www.dunedin-consort.org.uk/" title="">Dunedin Consort</a> now do the reverse with Monteverdi’s publication of vespers music. Gone are all plainsong antiphons and other contextual additions; what is presented instead is a varied collection of individual pieces of sacred music. This is a shock, though the recording sounds fresh and clear, emphasising transparency without a big reverberant acoustic. But the voices that suit Butt so well in Bach do not quite have the edge for the Italian rhetoric of Monteverdi; not much here is as exciting as Nigel Rogers in Andrew Parrott’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/friday_review/story/0,3605,452253,00.html" title="">famous small-scale recording</a>.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/24/monteverdi-vespers-1610-cd-review-dunedin-consort-linn">Continue reading...</a>Claudio MonteverdiClassical musicMusicCultureSun, 24 Sep 2017 07:00:38 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/sep/24/monteverdi-vespers-1610-cd-review-dunedin-consort-linnPhotograph: PR Company HandoutPhotograph: PR Company HandoutNicholas Kenyon2017-09-24T07:00:38ZMonteverdi's Vespers/Israel in Egypt review – choral majesty, colour, and a sprinting sopranohttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/03/monteverdis-vespersisrael-in-egypt-review-choral-majesty-colour-and-a-sprinting-soprano
<p><strong>Royal Albert Hall, London<br></strong>Two proms this week, led by Raphaël Pichon and William Christie, featured unconventional and captivating performances of Monteverdi and Handel’s great choral works</p><p>Sometimes the Royal Albert Hall can feel less like the nation’s village hall, as its jolly nickname goes, and more like its cathedral. A deconsecrated one, though. Two Proms on consecutive nights were devoted to major choral works, both religiously inspired but written to touch a human rather than a divine audience. </p><p>The Proms debut of the French ensemble Pygmalion, under its director Raphaël Pichon, brought a performance of Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers that used the venue for theatrical effect, evoking the lofty balconies of St Mark’s Basilica in Venice, even if Monteverdi didn’t write this music to be performed there. It started in almost complete darkness, with the choir facing away from most of the audience. The men sang out the plainsong Lord’s Prayer in unrefined, monkish tone. Then a solo tenor voice drifted down from high above us at the back – and before we knew it the stage was lit, the choir was facing us and the first big chorus was under way.</p><p>One soprano ​could only get​ from the stage up to the balcony​ in time for her next entry by making a sprint for it.</p><p>Handel had a lot of fun depicting the Plagues of Egypt &amp; Christie’s performers really got their teeth into the imagery</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/03/monteverdis-vespersisrael-in-egypt-review-choral-majesty-colour-and-a-sprinting-soprano">Continue reading...</a>Proms 2017CultureClassical musicMusicPromsOrchestra of the Age of EnlightenmentClaudio MonteverdiThu, 03 Aug 2017 08:26:41 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/aug/03/monteverdis-vespersisrael-in-egypt-review-choral-majesty-colour-and-a-sprinting-sopranoPhotograph: Chris ChristodoulouPhotograph: Chris ChristodoulouErica Jeal2017-08-03T08:26:41ZThe top classical, world, folk and jazz of summer 2017https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/19/best-classical-world-folk-jazz-music-summer-2017
<p>Comedy choirs, desert rock, a trip to the moon and a musical tour of Hull are the standout sounds of the season. Plus Django Bates jazzes up Sgt Pepper</p><ul><li>Summer arts preview 2017: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/14/summer-2017-best-pop-guns-n-roses-nas-haim-klf-eminem">Pop</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2017/jun/16/summer-2017-essential-theatre">Theatre</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/15/summer-2017-best-movies">Film</a> | <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jun/12/the-top-tv-shows-of-summer-2017-jk-rowling-glow-poldark">TV</a></li></ul> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/19/best-classical-world-folk-jazz-music-summer-2017">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicWorld musicFolk musicJazzOperaCultureMusicMusic festivalsChoral musicProms 2017Edinburgh festivalWomadClaudio MonteverdiBBC Symphony OrchestraRiccardo ChaillyUK city of cultureEnglish National Opera (ENO)London Symphony OrchestraSimon RattleChineke! OrchestraFestivalsPromsMon, 19 Jun 2017 05:00:27 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/19/best-classical-world-folk-jazz-music-summer-2017Composite: Ronald Grant and PRComposite: Ronald Grant and PRTim Ashley, Robin Denselow, John Fordham and Imogen Tilden2017-06-19T05:00:27ZIl Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria review – Monteverdi's greatness shineshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/08/ritorno-ulisse-patria-review-grange-festival-northington-hampshire-opera-monteverdi
<p><strong>The Grange festival, Northington, Hampshire<br></strong>An over-fussy production sometimes rides roughshod over the opera’s subtleties, but a clutch of superb performances carry the evening</p><p>I<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Il_ritorno_d%27Ulisse_in_patria">l Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria</a> was first performed in Venice in 1640. It marked <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/claudio-monteverdi">Monteverdi</a>’s return to the stage after an absence of more than three decades, and its appearance coincided with a turning point in musical history. Venice had opened the world’s first public opera house three years previously: opera, hitherto the privilege of the Italian aristocracy, was now available to a paying audience. It was almost inevitable that the 73-year-old composer, <em>maestro di capella </em>at St Mark’s, should be drawn back to the genre he had made his own at the Mantuan court with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Orfeo">Orfeo</a> (1607) and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Arianna">Arianna</a> (1608). Only fragments of the latter remain, though in his lifetime it was considered his masterpiece. It seems appropriate, perhaps, that to mark the 450th anniversary of his birth, the new <a href="https://thegrangefestival.co.uk/">Grange festival</a> (occupying the site vacated by the relocated Grange Park Opera) should open with his first work for the public stage.</p><p>Monteverdi is the first great musical dramatist, a description that extends to his work way beyond the bounds of opera. Exploring the meaning of a text, whether secular or sacred, and realising its significance in sound, was integral to his methodology. His madrigals traverse vast emotional spaces in the briefest of spans, and his sacred works, most notably the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S99FCAFNgaA">Vespers of 1610</a>, evoke the infinite nature of the divine through the drama of liturgy. His understanding of the human psyche, in all its contradictions, was acute, and his operas equate its workings with the often naked exposure of the human voice, controlled and subtle in inflection as it moves between recitative and arioso.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/08/ritorno-ulisse-patria-review-grange-festival-northington-hampshire-opera-monteverdi">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicOperaClaudio MonteverdiThu, 08 Jun 2017 15:06:28 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jun/08/ritorno-ulisse-patria-review-grange-festival-northington-hampshire-opera-monteverdiPhotograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianPhotograph: Tristram Kenton for the GuardianTim Ashley2017-06-08T15:06:28ZL'Orfeo review – magical and memorable Monteverdihttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/29/monteverdi-lorfeo-review-john-eliot-gardiner-magical-memorable
<p><strong>Colston Hall, Bristol</strong><br>Under John Eliot Gardiner and his exceptional group of musicians, every element in Monteverdi’s 1607 music drama was perfectly scaled and projected</p><p>This year, there’s no shortage of performances marking the 450th anniversary of the birth of Claudio Monteverdi. But if any of the events still to come match the concert stagings of the three surviving operas that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/john-eliot-gardiner">John Eliot Gardiner</a> is touring all summer with the Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists and his troupe of solo singers, we will be very lucky indeed. After their exceptional performances of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/13/il-ritorno-d-ulisse-in-patria-colston-hall-bristol-review-monteverdi">Il Ritorno d’Ulisse</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/09/lincoronazione-di-poppea-review-gardiner-honours-the-genius-of-monteverdi">L’Incoronazione di Poppea</a>, Gardiner ended his series at its only British venue before the Edinburgh festival in August with an equally outstanding account of L’Orfeo, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2007/jul/27/classicalmusicandopera">the work that launched Monteverdi’s operatic career in 1607</a>.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/03/monterverdi-orfeo-john-eliot-gardiner-the-inalienable-power-of-music">Monteverdi's Orfeo: 'a brilliant and compelling fable to the inalienable power of music'</a> </p><p>The audible gasp when Orfeo takes his fatal look back at Euridice was a measure of how involving it became</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/29/monteverdi-lorfeo-review-john-eliot-gardiner-magical-memorable">Continue reading...</a>OperaClassical musicClaudio MonteverdiJohn Eliot GardinerMusicCultureMon, 29 May 2017 13:01:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/29/monteverdi-lorfeo-review-john-eliot-gardiner-magical-memorablePhotograph: Colston Hall/Paul BoxPhotograph: Colston Hall/Paul BoxAndrew Clements2017-05-29T13:01:17ZGuangzhou Symphony Orchestra and Y Tŵr: this week’s best classical concertshttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/12/guangzhou-symphony-orchestra-y-twr-best-uk-classical-concerts
<p>One of China’s leading orchestras embarks on its first UK tour, while Music Theatre Wales’ debut Welsh opera launches the Vale of Glamorgan festival</p><p>Musicians from the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/education/royalnortherncollegeofmusic">Royal Northern College of Music</a> give two concerts of Davies’s chamber music in this portrait of the increasingly impressive composer. The programmes include some of her most striking early works, including Troubaritz for soprano and percussion, and the miniature concerto for saxophone and ensemble, Iris.<br><a href="https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/musicians-from-the-royal-northern-college-of-music-clark-rundell-orr-guy-201705131030"><em>Wigmore Hall, W1, 13 May</em></a></p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/12/guangzhou-symphony-orchestra-y-twr-best-uk-classical-concerts">Continue reading...</a>MusicCultureClaudio MonteverdiFri, 12 May 2017 10:30:16 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/may/12/guangzhou-symphony-orchestra-y-twr-best-uk-classical-concertsPhotograph: Patrick 许韬Photograph: Patrick 许韬Andrew Clements2017-05-12T10:30:16ZIl Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria review – compelling Monteverdi celebrationhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/13/il-ritorno-d-ulisse-in-patria-colston-hall-bristol-review-monteverdi
<p><strong>Colston Hall, Bristol</strong><br>John Eliot Gardiner’s ad-hoc company of impressive singers and musicians shine in a beautifully realised semi-staging that sounded totally assured</p><p>J<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/john-eliot-gardiner">ohn Eliot Gardiner</a> is celebrating this year’s 450th anniversary of Monteverdi’s birth in the best possible way, by touring concert stagings of all three of the surviving Monteverdi operas with his <a href="http://www.monteverdi.co.uk/">Monteverdi Choir</a> and the period instruments of the <a href="http://www.monteverdi.co.uk/about/ebs">English Baroque Soloists</a>. He has assembled a cosmopolitan company of soloists for his tour, which ranges right across Europe and the US, and visits the <a href="https://www.eif.co.uk/">Edinburgh festival</a> in August. The only other UK venue so far is Bristol’s Colston Hall; after this Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, L’incoronazione di Poppea and L’Orfeo will follow there next month.</p><p>Gardiner has collaborated with director Elsa Rooke on the stagings. There’s no set but the modern-era costumes, credited to Patricia Hofstede – long dresses or suits for the deities, casual clothes for the mortals, a trench coat for <a href="http://www.artisticamanagement.it/furio-zanasi/?lang=en">Furio Zanasi</a>’s Ulysses – and no props either, not even for Ulysses’ bow, used for the trial of the suitors, which is imitated instead by the arms and body of Penelope (<a href="http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Richardot-Lucile.htm">Lucile Richardot</a>), a really clever touch. And on Colston Hall’s platform, with its multiple levels and entrances, there was actually much more scope for movement behind and around Gardiner and the orchestra than there might have been in a more confining, artily designed opera-house set.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/13/il-ritorno-d-ulisse-in-patria-colston-hall-bristol-review-monteverdi">Continue reading...</a>OperaClassical musicCultureMusicJohn Eliot GardinerClaudio MonteverdiThu, 13 Apr 2017 14:26:50 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/apr/13/il-ritorno-d-ulisse-in-patria-colston-hall-bristol-review-monteverdiPhotograph: ShotAwayPhotograph: ShotAwayAndrew Clements2017-04-13T14:26:50ZGrazie mille, maestro: Monteverdi’s Venicehttps://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/09/grazie-mille-maestro-monteverdi-venice-travel
<p>The 450th anniversary of Claudio Monteverdi’s birth is the cue for a year of music in his home town</p><p>A raunchy Beyoncé video blaring from a tiny bar’s TV might seem an unlikely backdrop for an earnest discussion on the intricacies of reconstructing music from 400 years ago – but this is Venice, where sex and melody have always been close, and the composer we are talking about is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/claudio-monteverdi">Claudio Monteverdi</a>. The first composer to break through convention and display the true nature of humanity, he will be celebrated around the world this year, the 450th anniversary of his birth.<br></p><p>Sipping his Spritz under the glaring screen is today’s manifestation of Monteverdi – Marco Gemmani, <em>maestro di cappella</em> of the <a href="http://www.basilicasanmarco.it/?lang=en">basilica of San Marco</a>, the job Monteverdi held from 1613 until his death in 1643. We had stopped for a drink after he had given a rare tour of the singing galleries of the great basilica, a manifestation of the meeting of east and west. A Byzantine glory, it is covered in ancient mosaics and floored in dazzling Cosmati marble, and is as much a symbol of Venice as bobbing gondolas and creepy carnival masks.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/09/grazie-mille-maestro-monteverdi-venice-travel">Continue reading...</a>Venice holidaysItaly holidaysCultural tripsEurope holidaysTravelClaudio MonteverdiClassical musicCultureMusicSun, 09 Apr 2017 09:00:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2017/apr/09/grazie-mille-maestro-monteverdi-venice-travelPhotograph: smiltena/Getty Images/iStockphotoPhotograph: smiltena/Getty Images/iStockphotoStephen Pritchard2017-04-09T09:00:04ZMonteverdi: Madrigali Vol 3: Venezia CD review – a joyous celebration of the composer's rangehttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/02/monteverdi-madrigali-vol-3-venezia-cd-review-les-arts-florissants
<p><strong>Les Arts Florissants/Agnew </strong><br>(Harmonia Mundi)</p><p>After discs devoted to the madrigals that <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/claudio-monteverdi">Monteverdi</a> wrote in <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/18/monteverdi-madrigals-vol-1-cd-review-paul-agnew-les-arts-florissants">Cremona</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/nov/27/les-arts-florissants-agnew-monteverdi-madrigals-vol-2-mantua-cd-review">Mantua</a>, the final part of <a draggable="true" href="http://www.arts-florissants.com/main/en_GB/">Les Arts Florissants</a>’ anthology includes pieces from the Seventh and Eighth books. Published in Venice in 1619 and 1638 respectively, they were the last such collections to appear in the composer’s lifetime, and the 51 numbers (29 in book seven, 22 in book eight) include some of Monteverdi’s greatest music.</p><p>Selecting a single disc of music from such a rich treasury is a real challenge, and director Paul Agnew has mixed familiar pieces such as Lamento della Ninfa and Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda (both from book eight) with less familiar, smaller-scale settings, from the relatively traditional Allume delle Stelle (book seven) to the vivid contrasts of Altri Canti d’Amor (book eight). But then, the Arts Flo series never set out to be comprehensive; it’s more a celebration of the joyous range and variety of Monteverdi’s madrigals as they evolved over six decades. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/02/monteverdi-madrigali-vol-3-venezia-cd-review-les-arts-florissants">Continue reading...</a>Claudio MonteverdiClassical musicCultureMusicThu, 02 Feb 2017 15:00:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/feb/02/monteverdi-madrigali-vol-3-venezia-cd-review-les-arts-florissantsPhotograph: Laure JacqueminPhotograph: Laure JacqueminAndrew Clements2017-02-02T15:00:33ZMonteverdi: Vespers of 1610 CD review – authentic but incoherenthttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/19/monteverdi-vespers-of-1610-cd-review-cantar-lontano-mencoboni
<p><strong>Cantar Lontano/Mencoboni </strong><br>(Pan Classics, two discs)</p><p>There’s no evidence that <a draggable="true" href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/claudio-monteverdi">Monteverdi</a> imagined the volume of liturgical pieces that he published in Venice in 1610 would ever be regarded as a single, unified work and regularly performed as such. But since the Vespers became a part of the choral repertory in the second half of the 20th century, conductors and musicologists have continued to look for new ways of performing the whole work.</p><p>For their version, Marco Mencoboni and his 50-strong <a draggable="true" href="http://www.cantarlontano.com/en/">Cantar Lontano</a> began with a surviving copy of the original published edition – Mencoboni details some of their resulting performing decisions in his sleeve notes. Plainsong antiphons punctuate the whole sequence of set pieces and, to enhance the authenticity further, the performance took place in 2009 in the basilica of the ducal court in Mantua, where Monteverdi was employed when he published the Vespers – the very space, presumably, that he composed much of this joyously antiphonal music for.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/19/monteverdi-vespers-of-1610-cd-review-cantar-lontano-mencoboni">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicClaudio MonteverdiChoral musicThu, 19 Jan 2017 15:00:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2017/jan/19/monteverdi-vespers-of-1610-cd-review-cantar-lontano-mencoboniPhotograph: Lorenzo Franzi/Record Company HandoutPhotograph: Lorenzo Franzi/Record Company HandoutAndrew Clements2017-01-19T15:00:05ZWar of Words review – gripping staging of a Monteverdi madrigalhttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/17/war-of-words-review-london-festival-of-baroque-music-st-johns-smith-square
<p><strong>London festival of baroque music<br></strong>Monteverdi’s music drama setting of a passage from Tasso came off best in the Monteverdi String Band’s colourful programme of contemporaneous instrumental pieces and madrigals</p><p>Performed at this year’s <a href="http://www.lfbm.org.uk/">London festival of baroque music</a> by the <a href="http://www.monteverdistringband.com/">Monteverdi String Band</a> under its director Oliver Webber, War of Words was essentially a contextualisation of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHC0_6OPbX0">Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda</a>, Monteverdi’s unclassifiable setting of a passage from <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/aug/17/artsfeatures1">Tasso</a> that relates the final encounter between the Christian knight Tancredi and the Saracen warrior Clorinda – lovers off the battlefield, but enemies on it, where their armour prevents each from recognising the other. </p><p>Though published as a madrigal, its first performance, in 1624, was staged and prefaced by vocal and instrumental works. Webber and his musicians followed suit, adding readings from <a href="http://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Fairfax">Edward Fairfax</a>’s 1600 Tasso translation along with an eyebrow-raising disquisition about the respective merits of insults and swordsmanship as weaponry. <br> <br>Directed by Karolina Sofulak and lit Caravaggio-style by Natalie Rowland, Combattimento itself was utterly gripping in its mixture of eroticism and violence, as <a href="http://www.durham-singers.org/nicholas-hurndall-smith.html">Nicholas Hurndall Smith</a>’s charismatic Tancredi and <a href="http://fayenewton.com/">Faye Newton</a>’s assertive Clorinda grappled and fought while Nicholas Mulroy’s anguished Narrator looked on. </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/17/war-of-words-review-london-festival-of-baroque-music-st-johns-smith-square">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicCultureMusicClaudio MonteverdiTue, 17 May 2016 13:56:05 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/may/17/war-of-words-review-london-festival-of-baroque-music-st-johns-smith-squarePhotograph: Andrea LiuPhotograph: Andrea LiuTim Ashley2016-05-17T13:56:05ZCirca’s The Return: Ulysses on his flying trapezehttps://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jan/17/circa-yaron-lifschitz-il-ritorno-monteverdi-interview
<p>Ahead of the UK premiere of the Australian company’s radical reworking of Monteverdi, director Yaron Lifschitz talks about the thrills, spills and storytelling power of circus</p><p>Once it was enough to enjoy the circus for its pure physicality: the plate-spinning, the tumblers, the flying trapeze, the stilt walkers. In an attempt to classify, you might call it gymnastics with vaudeville and clowns thrown in, up and over, sometimes with animals too. The idea of it being an art form never occurred even when, in the 1980s, the Canadian company <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/stage/cirque-du-soleil">Cirque du Soleil</a> expanded the possibilities of circus and introduced its <a href="https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/">grand spectacles</a> to ever growing, spellbound audiences.</p><p>The Brisbane-based company <a href="http://circa.org.au/">Circa</a>, founded in 2004, has different ideas. An ensemble of some 21 fearless acrobats, using few props apart from ropes and trapezes, this troupe challenges all your preconceptions. In the words of its director, <a href="http://circa.org.au/about-circa/people/artistic-director/">Yaron Lifschitz</a>, “We’re really trying to do two different things. One is to see how far circus can bend as an art form, how far it can cross-pollinate with theatre, dance and music when you stretch it beyond its normal limits. On the other hand, we want to use the physical immediacy and danger and presence of circus to try to reinvigorate other art forms. In our piece called <a href="http://circa.org.au/shows/opus/about-opus/"><em>Opus</em></a> you had maybe two and a half thousand people listening to Shostakovich string quartets…”<br></p><p>‘There’s an old Russian saying that an acrobat who wakes up and doesn’t feel pain is probably dead’</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jan/17/circa-yaron-lifschitz-il-ritorno-monteverdi-interview">Continue reading...</a>CircusClassical musicTheatreStageCultureClaudio MonteverdiSun, 17 Jan 2016 08:30:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/stage/2016/jan/17/circa-yaron-lifschitz-il-ritorno-monteverdi-interviewPhotograph: Lyndon Mechielsen / Copyright News LTD AustraliaPhotograph: Lyndon Mechielsen / Copyright News LTD AustraliaFiona Maddocks2016-01-17T08:30:04ZOrfeo review - achingly moving but hampered by clumsy staginghttps://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/05/monteverdi-choir-gardiner-prom-25-review-orfeo
<p><strong>Royal Albert Hall, London</strong><br></p><p>John Eliot Gardiner remains wonderfully alert to the joys and sorrow of Monterverdi’s masterpiece, and this performance was beautifully sung and played, but was let down by an awkward semi-staging</p><p>Hearing Monteverdi’s Orfeo, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/03/monterverdi-orfeo-john-eliot-gardiner-the-inalienable-power-of-music">John Eliot Gardiner says, is “potentially to be exposed to music’s power in one of its rawest, most concentrated forms</a>”. The composer’s output has, of course, been central to Gardiner’s own work since he formed the <a href="http://www.monteverdi.co.uk/about/choir">Monteverdi Choir</a> more than 50 years ago, and his recording of opera’s earliest masterpiece is regarded as a benchmark achievement by many. His Prom performance didn’t quite scale comparable heights, despite its often remarkable musical beauty. If raw, concentrated emotion was the aim, it was not quite achieved, largely thanks to an awkward semi-staging, for which no director was credited, and which sometimes got in the way.</p><p> <span>Related: </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/03/monterverdi-orfeo-john-eliot-gardiner-the-inalienable-power-of-music">Monterverdi's Orfeo: 'a brilliant and compelling fable to the inalienable power of music'</a> </p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/05/monteverdi-choir-gardiner-prom-25-review-orfeo">Continue reading...</a>BBC Proms 2015Classical musicMusicCultureClaudio MonteverdiJohn Eliot GardinerOperaWed, 05 Aug 2015 11:59:15 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/05/monteverdi-choir-gardiner-prom-25-review-orfeoPhotograph: Chris Christodoulou/BBCPhotograph: Chris Christodoulou/BBCTim Ashley2015-08-05T11:59:15ZMonteverdi's Orfeo: 'a brilliant and compelling fable to the inalienable power of music'https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/03/monterverdi-orfeo-john-eliot-gardiner-the-inalienable-power-of-music
<p>Monteverdi might be surprised to find himself hailed as the inventor of the opera, and he disclaimed the role of revolutionary, but his Orfeo is a radical, innovative and extraordinary work </p><p>The <a href="http://www.orpheus-med.org/index.php/about-orpheus-legend">Orpheus legend</a> is utterly central to how opera emerged at the close of the Italian Renaissance and to the way its first pioneers tried to justify its existence as a revival of ancient Greek sung drama (a slightly spurious claim). Orpheus, its first definitive hero, is present at every intersection in opera’s 400-year story as it continued to evolve and then, after a few wrong turnings, attempted to reform itself thanks largely to Gluck.</p><p>When Claudio Monteverdi came to compose L’Orfeo in 1607 he seems to have had a particular empathy with Orpheus. As a court musician working in claustrophobic, mosquito-ridden Mantua, Monteverdi was in effect a feudal vassal of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Gonzaga">Gonzaga dukes</a>. There his moods seesawed between elation and dejection: intense bouts of audacious creativity were followed by moments of self-doubt - very much like the Orpheus of Greek mythology (as transmitted by <a href="http://ovid.lib.virginia.edu/trans/Metamorph10.htm">Ovid</a> and <a href="http://www.poetryintranslation.com/PITBR/Latin/VirgilGeorgicsIV.htm#anchor_Toc534524384">Virgil</a>), who suffers, loves, exults, mourns, goes on a heroic rescue mission, stumbles at the last hurdle and finally reaches a new and deeper understanding of himself. </p><p>To refer to L’Orfeo as the first opera is slightly misleading. To Monteverdi it was a 'favola in musica'</p><p>From the moment he opens his mouth to sing Orfeo possesses a magic which is only his to use or to squander</p><p>It may be that the radicalism of Monteverdi has yet to be fully grasped</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/03/monterverdi-orfeo-john-eliot-gardiner-the-inalienable-power-of-music">Continue reading...</a>Classical musicOperaJohn Eliot GardinerClaudio MonteverdiBBC Proms 2015CultureMusicMon, 03 Aug 2015 16:55:58 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/aug/03/monterverdi-orfeo-john-eliot-gardiner-the-inalienable-power-of-musicPhotograph: David LevenePhotograph: David LeveneJohn Eliot Gardiner2015-08-03T16:55:58Z